The Brave and the Bold

by Hans G. Schantz

  “Falcon?” Amit asked.

  “The call sign for the Fidei Defensor strike team,” Bulldog beat me to the explanation. “Our call sign is ‘Sparrow.’ We shouldn’t need to coordinate, however.”

  “A couple last minute updates to the plan,” Caitlin added. “We have an operative standing by in the campground a couple hundred yards north. Campsite C-20. Should be the first one you get to. Your team will be leaving by boat, while we have to cross the island to get back to the party. We’ve cached our weapons near Beachview Drive. Your ‘Gunny’ provided us with your gear and we’ve included it in our cache. After the operation, we’ll cache our weapons there and return to the party for our alibi. We’ll get your gear back to you later.”

  “Thanks,” I acknowledged. That made sense. I was glad we’d have our weapons with us in case we got into a fight when we withdrew.

  We drove slowly past Horton House. I recognized Mr. Garraty and a couple of Rob’s team throwing Frisbees on the grounds, providing surveillance in advance of the operation.

  As Riverside Drive became Beachview Drive and we turned south along the ocean side of Jekyll Island, Bulldog pointed out the campground

  “I’ve been meaning to ask,” Amit reached out as if to touch Caitlin’s red hair, “is that your natural color?”

  “No,” Caitlin replied sweetly, grabbing his hand. I saw she had one of his fingers at an unnatural angle. Amit grimaced.

  “I dye it in the blood of my enemies,” Caitlin explained. “See that you don’t become one.”

  Who says Amit can’t take a hint? He was silent for the rest of the short trip.

  The limo driver let us off at the condo complex near the Beijing Bistro where I’d had lunch with Ding. “Right there,” he said, giving us the condo number. “There’s a big party starting up. Mingle a bit, then leave by the back door. Rendezvous here in fifteen minutes.”

  I had just enough time to say hello to Mr. Humphreys and circulate through the guests at the party. More seemed to be arriving every minute.

  “Let’s go,” Bulldog said softly to Amit and me, heading toward the back room of the condo.

  Amit waited a moment before breaking away after Bulldog. I followed him a half minute later.

  Brother Francis opened the door for me. “Through the curtains to the balcony,” he ordered. Bulldog helped me over the rail. I dropped a few feet to the ground to join Amit and Caitlin. Bulldog joined us a moment later.

  “This way,” he ordered. “Maintain silence.”

  Amit and I fell in behind him with Caitlin bringing up the rear. His hand signals were a bit different from what Rob used, but they were easy enough to figure out from context. Bulldog waited until the coast was clear and then we casually walked across Beachview Drive and into the brush. Bulldog had apparently cleared a way through the dense vegetation earlier. We stopped in a small clearing. Bulldog uncovered a duffle bag that had been invisible under a pile of leaves and debris.

  “Gunny dropped this off for you,” he said softly, handing us the bag. Amit and I opened the bag and pulled out our tactical vests and weapons. Meanwhile, Bulldog and Caitlin were gearing up as well. I gave my AR-15 a quick once over. We were good to go. Bulldog took point and led us down the trail, past a water tower, and toward the Horton House.

  “Down and cover,” Bulldog signaled, breaking right. I broke left and took cover just off the trail. I froze, wondering what he saw, and who was coming. The sun wasn’t technically down yet, but the trail appeared dark and deserted.

  “Move out,” he signaled. It was a test? I guess we passed, because he continued down the trail without comment.

  I’d counted out a mile of steps and we’d just passed the second cross trail when Bulldog signaled “down and cover,” again. I broke left and froze. A long moment later, two flashes of dim red light appeared ahead of us. I saw a hint of movement and caught the periphery of two similar red flashes as Bulldog signaled back.

  A dark form headed toward us.

  “Right on time,” Rick grinned. “Follow me.”

  He led us past the ruin of the Horton house and across Riverview Drive to where Rob was waiting.

  “We’ve been all over this place the last couple of hours,” Rob assured us. It’s deserted. No sign of surveillance or security. Just the occasional car heading up Riverview Drive and a few tourists to see the ruins. We’re ready to breach the opening as soon as Falcon gives the word.”

  “Good,” Bulldog nodded.

  I checked my watch. We had a couple of minutes to go.

  I moved close to Rob for a private conversation. “Wellstone?” I whispered.

  “Got word to his aide,” Rob confirmed softly. “Not sure he believed me. Best I could do with everything else going on.”

  I nodded in understanding, hoping that was enough for the Senator to forego his sabotaged flight home.

  Two clicks crackled through the radio. I checked my watch and saw it was time. Rob signaled a freeze. We waited. A few seconds later the sound of sniper fire echoed from the south.

  “Squad Two move,” Rob signaled.

  Two men ran to the pit containing the entrance to the abandoned refuge. They ripped off the grating. Then the breacher and his assistant dropped into the shallow pit and attached charges to the wall. The other six formed up behind a blanket man, standing off at a distance and holding up a ballistic blanket to protect the rest of the team from any shrapnel. The breacher fell back, stringing det cord behind him as his assistant covered him. They took their place in the formation behind the blanket man.

  “Breaching has control.”

  “Roger, I have control,” the breacher replied. I saw him work on the detonator. “Stand by,” he added. A moment later he began his count. “Five, four, three, two…”

  There was a deep thud and a crack as a cloud of smoke arose from the hole and gravel and sand from the explosion began to rain down.

  “Breach open!”

  “Go!”

  The breach team flowed smoothly around the blanket man who dropped the blanket and took his place at the rear of the formation, surging into the breach.

  A minute later I saw the signal from the pit. “All clear.”

  “Squad One move,” Rob signaled.

  Another team joined us, advancing to establish a perimeter around the breach. “Secure your weapons,” Rob ordered me, Amit, and Caitlin. “You photograph,” he handed me a camera. “You two grab and bag,” he handed Caitlin and Amit garbage bags. We followed him into the breach with Bulldog taking up the rear.

  The place was a burned-out wreck, even before the breaching charges had stirred up decades or more worth of dust. The tabby walls were covered in soot.

  “Radiation levels nominal,” one of the guys told Rob. “Maybe a bit elevated, but not by much.”

  “OK. Go,” Rob pointed at me. I shot photos, and Caitlin and Amit moved in behind me, cleaning up interesting pieces of the wreckage – a coil, some wires with decaying insulation, glass insulators. The place was a junk yard of electromechanical debris. Rusted iron doors stood ajar. One door, however, was shut. It looked newer than the others.

  “We can’t get this door open,” another of the guys told Rob.

  Rob studied it a moment. “Breach it.”

  “Yes, sir,” he replied with a smile.

  The breaching team leapt into action again.

  “Squad Two,” Rob ordered, “form up outside the first breach.”

  We joined Squad One outside as Squad Two’s breaching team smoothly executed their well-practiced operation. Another thud and more dust and smoke puffed out of the breach.

  “Breach open!”

  “Go!”

  The breach team surged in again.

  “Let’s go,” Rob said.

  Caitlin, Amit, Bulldog, and I followed Rob and the breaching team.

  We peered in through the dust and smoke. A huge cylindrical tank a yard or so in diameter and over ten feet long filled the room the breaching
team had just opened up.

  “How did they get that in there?” Caitlin asked.

  I took a closer look as the dust settled and the visibility improved.

  “The radiation levels shot up when we opened that door,” I heard someone telling Rob saying.

  The cylindrical tank had fins at the other end. I shot some photos and took a closer look.

  There was a squawk on the handheld transceiver.

  “Sparrow,” the call was interrupted by static. “…blue flames.” The voice sounded panicked.

  Rob and Bulldog exchanged concerned looks even as Bulldog reached for the handheld transceiver.

  “Falcon, Sparrow, say again,” Bulldog transmitted.

  Silence.

  “Rick, you’re with me. Squad Two, out. Take over the inside perimeter,” Rob ordered. The team surged out past us and through the first breach.

  I moved faster, trying to complete my photographic survey in case we had to evacuate. “Go, go, go,” I urged Caitlin and Amit to pick up the pace and gather the debris. No way were we going to remove the huge tank.

  “Falcon, Sparrow, say again,” I heard Bulldog try once more.

  “We still have two and a half minutes,” Bulldog noted to Rob.

  “Something’s wrong. Rick, take the package. Have Squad Two escort you to the boats,” Rob insisted. “Now.”

  I’d been expecting him to give that order any moment since the first hint of trouble. I was already handing my camera to Rick. He neatly collected the bags of debris Caitlin and Amit had been collecting and followed the rest of squad 1 out through the breach.

  “You’re needed out there. It’s your crew,” I heard Bulldog telling Rob as I went out the breach.

  I could see Rick and the rest of Squad Two, already heading past Dubignon Cemetery to the boat with our loot.

  I helped Rob out.

  Between us, getting Bulldog up was easy.

  A blue light tickled my peripheral vision. I glanced back toward the golf course just in time to see a tiny blue flame descending behind the tree line.

  “What was that?”

  Rob looked. Seeing nothing, he frowned.

  “There!” I pointed through Spanish moss-cloaked trees to where a blue light leapt up and then back down in a parabolic arc.

  “What the…” Rob looked, momentarily dumbfounded at something entirely outside his experience. “It’s getting closer,” he noted at the next jump.

  “If it took out Falcon, we don’t stand much chance,” Bulldog noted.

  “Better chance defending from the cover over there,” Rob gestured toward the tabby walls of the Horton House, “than anywhere else.”

  “I’m going to lure it down into the complex,” Bulldog declared. “I’ll kill it and catch up with Caitlin and the boys. Get going.”

  “You sure about…”

  “Go,” Bulldog cut off Rob. “Get your team out of here. Cover Caitlin and the boys.”

  The blue flame flickered through the trees in another arc. Whatever it was couldn’t be more than a quarter mile away, now.

  Caitlin grabbed Bulldog and gave him an intense kiss.

  “Go,” he smiled confidently, pushing her away. “I’ll catch up.”

  Caitlin moved without waiting for Rob, east along the trail, crossing the island to our rendezvous with Brother Francis. I looked at Rob.

  “Squad One, form up on me,” Rob signaled. All around us there was motion from the perimeter as Squad One broke cover and converged to form a loose formation around Rob.

  “Go,” he confirmed to me. Then he looked at Bulldog. “Godspeed.”

  “Deus vult,” Bulldog replied. He turned, took up a position in the pit by the breach, and prepared to cover our retreat, while Rob and Squad One made for the boats.

  Chapter 14: The Ashes of Their Fathers

  Amit and I ran along the path east after Caitlin, finally catching up with her a hundred yards down the path. A hundred yards further, and I heard a three-shot burst. I looked back to see a dark figure bounding behind the dark ruins of the Horton House toward Bulldog, trailing an eerie blue flame. It seemed to throw a ball of lightning toward Bulldog. The ball narrowly missed Bulldog, exploding on impact with the damp ground, knocking him over, and setting the adjacent grass on fire. Steam rose from a basket ball-sized divot. My God, did it actually vaporize that much soil? No, that would have made an even bigger explosion. The plasma must have vaporized the water in that area. The exploding steam carved out the crater.

  Bulldog was back on his feet before the thing could launch a lightning ball again. He fired another three-shot burst. I could see the figure recoil from the impact, but it kept advancing. Damn. No wonder it ran right over the Fidei Defensor strike team. Those lightning balls would be deadly in a confined tunnel, and the Fidei Defensor team wouldn’t be able to carry anything heavier than assault rifles.

  I gestured for Amit and Caitlin to take cover on the south side of the trail. I shielded myself behind a tree on the north side, flicked the safety off, and raised my weapon toward the target. The thing was shrugging off small arms fire, but perhaps I could get a lucky shot.

  “Deus vult!” Bulldog jumped in the pit and vanished into the complex through the breach as his war cry still echoed.

  “Russell…” Caitlin cried softly in despair.

  Through the scope, I could see the figure – whatever it was. It paused a moment seeming to scan the horizon with glowing, fiery red eyes. Had it seen my motion? I froze, keeping my finger on the trigger guard so as not to fire prematurely, hoping it didn’t see me. Then, it dropped down the pit after Bulldog. There simply wasn’t anything we could do without a hell of a lot more firepower than we had with us. Time to retreat – or advance quickly in a different direction, as Rob would have put it.

  Move out, I gestured to the others. Amit took point, followed by Caitlin. I took one last look at the Horton House, muffled gunfire echoing through the woods.

  As I turned, I heard a motorboat engine start in the distance. Rob and his team were making their getaway through the marsh. More muffled echoes of gunfire sounded from the depths underneath Horton House. I safed my weapon, turned my back, and continued down the trail.

  We made good time. The water tower loomed above us, showing we were near the other side of Jekyll Island. I heard more gunfire in the distance and then a familiar BOOM echoed and crackled through the woods. BOOM. Amit recognized the sound, too. “That’s got to be the 50 cal,” he confirmed my suspicion. A third and a fourth shot boomed through the woods in quick succession. “The Raufoss rounds. Somehow it followed the boats, and Rob’s snipers are engaging it.”

  “Raufoss rounds?” Caitlin asked.

  “It’s a high performance armor-piercing round tipped with incendiaries and high explosive,” I explained as we continued along the path, nearing the ocean side of the island. There were no more shots. “That thing may be able to shrug off regular rounds, but the Raufoss rounds will go through a half inch of steel armor easy. The snipers either got it, or drove it off, or there’d be more shots.”

  “Let’s stop. Here’s where Bulldog wanted us to cache our weapons,” Amit pointed out when we reached the edge of the woods across Beachview Drive from the condo complex. There was a police cruiser, lights flashing, parked blocking the entrance from the road. I saw a couple of state troopers corralling the partiers back toward the central courtyard.

  I wrapped my gun and bagged it. Then I took off my tactical vest and sealed both in a duffel bag. Caitlin looked grim as I sealed her weapon in a garbage bag and shoved it into her canvas rucksack. “We’re cut off,” she stated the obvious. “We can’t get to the condo.”

  “We’re going to need an alibi,” Amit pointed out. “They’re going to have the island on lockdown. Roadblocks, security checks. We can’t just hide here in the woods until they find us, particularly with our weapons right nearby.”

  “I know,” I replied. Beijing Bistro was just a hundred yards down the road. T
he police hadn’t gotten there yet. “I’m going to call in a favor from the Tong.”

  “You’re awfully close to the Red Flower Tong,” Caitlin eyed me suspiciously.

  “An alliance of necessity,” I explained. “Same reason you’re working with me, come to think of it. You weren’t terribly interested in helping at first, so I looked elsewhere.”

  “You can’t trust them,” she insisted. “That Ding Li who’s been flirting with you? She’s one of their operatives.” Caitlin drove her point home. “The Red Flower Tong was involved in your parents’ deaths, too. They stole the secrets from the Tolliver Library and burned it down hoping to recover certain secrets uncovered by an Albertian named Angus MacGuffin.”

  Heh. Each group thought the other was responsible for the Tolliver Library fire. It was a good thing the Red Flower Tong and the Albertians were more mutual enemies than allies in their struggle against the Civic Circle. If they ever sat down together, compared notes, and realized neither was responsible, it wouldn’t take long for suspicion to turn to me. I could honestly reply that I didn’t burn down the library. Amit and I helped Rob steal the critical books, including MacGuffin’s manuscript, but the fire itself was set in secret by Rob. I pretended to be surprised.

  “Who is Angus MacGuffin?” I might as well see what else she’d share.

  “Some other time,” she brought us back to the moment. “What’s this favor you’re going to ask of the Tong?”

  I explained.

  Caitlin gave me a look like she was surprised I actually had a good idea, but she didn’t object. We casually crossed the road when no one was coming or appeared to be looking, and we circled through the adjacent condominium complex to the back of the restaurant. I rang the delivery bell by the back door.

  “You go to front,” came a woman’s voice a moment later.

  “I am a friend of Mr. Hung’s,” I explained, holding up the jade token. “I need to speak with him.”

  A few moments later the door opened. “Come in,” Mr. Hung invited us, flanked by a couple of awfully big busboys. “What may I do for our friend?”